The InfoPad user interface

We have shown a prototype user interface for the InfoPad, a portable terminal with multi-modal input and multimedia output. The InfoPad's main features are: portability, continuous network connectivity using a high-bandwidth radio link, pen input with handwriting recognition, audio input with speech recognition, full-motion video playback with synchronized audio, text/graphics display. The InfoPad's unique input and output characteristics offer challenges and opportunities for user interface design. We have implemented an API for network access to audio, pen, graphics, and video data; we have also implemented speech and handwriting recognizers along with programming interfaces and toolkits. We are prototyping applications and user interfaces to explore how handwriting and voice recognition may best be used together. We believe that the lessons we will learn can be applied to other multi-modal platforms.